


Bright Lights and Late Nights

by BasementVampire



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: First Meetings, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 21:31:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6676141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasementVampire/pseuds/BasementVampire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick meets the stunning Jay Gatsby at one of his parties.  (Modern setting.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright Lights and Late Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short modern-day take on Nick and Gatsby's meeting. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)

Bright lights flashed overhead and a steady bass line pounded in Nick’s chest from whatever song was on. All around him, people jumped up and down, feet pounding against the floor. It vaguely crossed his mind that he was glad the apartment was on the first floor. 

Nick stumbled slightly as he pushed through throngs of people, and someone’s elbow jerked into his arm, sloshing beer on his shirt. He swirled the bottle around in his hand to see how much was left—at least half, so Nick continued around the corner into a different room, this one relatively quieter and filled mostly with guests talking. Sitting on a couch in the back corner was Jordan, the girl he had come with, head tipped to the side so that dark locks cascaded across one shoulder as she took the bottle from his outstretched hand. He tumbled gracelessly onto the couch next to her, giggling.

“Where’s the host?” Nick asked, raising his voice slightly to be heard above the music.

Jordan leaned in, splaying her long fingers across his chest, and breathed, “No idea.”

Nick waited for her to elaborate further, but she just took a drink from the bottle in her hand. After several moments, she continued. “Apparently he killed a guy.”

“What are you talking about?” Nick pressed when she again didn’t elucidate.

“The host, Jay—he killed a guy. It was over drugs or money or something.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “You know him?”

“I met him one time,” Jordan said, “but I don’t really know him.”

That was the thing about these parties—nobody actually knew Jay. The guests just came because they knew his parties were fantastic. Nick would have liked to have said he wasn’t guilty of this presumptuous self-invitation, but that unfortunately was not true.

“Seems like nobody here knows him.” A new voice found Nick’s ears, drifting through the haze from the other side of the couch. He turned away from Jordan to see a lanky blond man in a waistcoat sitting cross-legged, a bottle dangling carelessly from his fingers.

Nick stuttered out a breathless greeting before being cut off by Jordan. “Why, Nick, darling, speak of the devil,” she drawled. “Jay Gatsby, as I live and breathe.”

“Evening, Jordan, always a pleasure. Nice to meet you, Nick,” Jay said with a smile. Nick was struck by what a pretty smile it was; maybe he would have said something profound and poetic about it if he hadn’t been so wasted.

“Yeah, hey,” Nick mumbled uselessly, nodding in the host’s general direction.

Before the conversation could continue (or begin, really) a shrill ringing emitted from Jay’s cell phone. “Excuse me, I’ve gotta take this,” he apologized, standing up. “Hope to see you around, Nick,” he added with a wink, before turning on his heel and strutting out of the room.

“What a pretentious prick,” Jordan chuckled, breath warm against Nick’s ear. “Grab me another beer, would you?”


End file.
